What Are We?
by TheBuddyWaterfalls
Summary: Hilda and her friends help an isolated young man to just be a kid.
1. Chapter 1

Hilda sits on her fire escape, looking longingly over the wall. She misses being out there, exploring. She's an adventurer, yet she's hiding behind walls! Yet in her head, there is another truth; she loves Trollberg. It's people, her friends, her family. She wouldn't give them up for anything. As cars crawl along the street, she hums a soft tune to herself. The song is sung originally by Sean Sero, a popular singer in his day.

"Where there's light, there will there will be rain.

"Where there's dark, we hear the moon man sing,

"Is this us? Is this us? Oh, is this us? Is this us?"

The song is a bittersweet tune about never finding the one you love in such a big world and settling for what you have.

She slumps over, thinking about her life. How she never got to see her father, how she lived in the forest most of her life before this year. Now the school year's screeching to a hard halt and she has to start all over again next year. Twig sits on her lap and nudges her hand, she giggles before obliging, rubbing the deerfox's head gently. Again she looks out into the forest, noticing a large troll rise from the ground before sinking once more. Weird. She thinks, looking away, shifting her vision to a kid running down the street swiftly. Like he's late for something. He turns into a back alley and disappears.

"Hilda, your mum is calling." Alfur states.

Hilda nods, standing up. "Thank you Alfur." She says, Looking longingly out once more before returning inside. She enters the main room seeing her mother at the drawing station.

"There you are." she says, looking up. "There's mail for you, Hilda." She hands Hilda a package. Inside of it is her old drawing book, the one she filled completely. There's a letter with it.

Hilda,

Saw that you left this, thought you might want it.

-Woodman

So she opens the old book and finds her old drawings. "I can't believe the ink lasted this long." she states.

"I can't believe he gave it back." Johanna says, mostly to herself. Then to Hilda, "How about some Dragon Panic?"

"I'd love that, Mum." she says. They play until they have to go to sleep.

* * *

He wanders around the city, as daylight rises around him until he happens upon a school. Schools have always interested Wayne. Kids are commanded by a bell, and sent off by their parents to get taught by strangers. Odd. The kids file inside of the building. One looks back, a girl with blue hair and dark eyes. She waves and he returns it before walking away. He feels guilty living freely.

He walks into an alley where a nisse is waiting for him. "What took you so long?" it asks.

Wayne looks at him coldly playing the character of a movie villain, "I didn't ask for comments. Do you have what I asked for?" He puts an edge to his voice.

The nisse gives in, "Yes."

"Good. Then hand it over." The nisse hands Wayne a big jar of jerky. "Good. Here's your reward." He hands it an old, beat up book he found in the trash.

It dusts off the book carefully and looks at it, smiling. "Thank you. My son's always wanted a copy of Old Yeller."

Wayne, still with that edge, says, "I'm glad. Good day." Then he leaves to another alley where another nisse waits.

* * *

Hilda watches the others have fun on field day. Playing games, laughing, all that. She is wondering about that boy. Is he new here? Where does he live? Does he go to school? Who is he? Her thoughts are interrupted by David. "Hey Hilda. Why aren't you playing? It is the last day."

Hilda shrugs, "Just not really in the mood, i guess." She says. "Where's Frida?"

"She's with everyone over there playing volleyball." He pauses, "I would play too, but I'm afraid of getting a tooth knocked out."

Hilda giggles quietly and pats him on the back. "What aren't you scared of?"

"I'm not afraid of..." he stops to think.

Hilda punches his shoulder playfully, "Exactly. Just sit, we'll wait for Frida." While they sit, the kid from that morning walks by. She runs up to him, "I haven't seen you before." He grunts, continuing his forward motion. "My name is Hilda." She steps in front of him and holds out her hand.

He looks at her for a moment, thinking, before taking her hand and shaking it. "Wayne. Wayne Sharpe." he says, "Now if you'll excuse me, I was just cutting through this field."

"What's in the bag?"

"Supplies."

"For what?"

David walks up to them and asks, "Hilda, what's going on? Who is this?"

"David, this is Wayne." she says. He gives Wayne an oddly charming smile, like a kindergartener asking for a piece of pie, you can't say no to it. Wayne shakes his hand quickly. "Why don't you stay a while, you look stressed."

Wayne grunts, "Can't. Need to drop this off, I can't do much with sixty-three pounds weighing me down."

David shrugs, "We dug a ditch in the field. You could hide your stuff there until we leave." he says.

_Okay so it's either leave your stuff and hope nobody takes it or leave and potentially lose something special_. After weighing his options, he looks at the sun and sighs_. It's all dry food anyway. Canda will wait_. "Sure. I'll do it." They guide him to the far end of the field where they move a heavy wooden pallet to reveal a stash of junk food. "Just drop it?"

Hilda shrugs, "Go ahead. But gently, please." He follows her instructions and they move the pallet back, scattering grass and leaves over it. Wayne feels infinitely lighter. "David, how much time is left in school?"

David looks at his watch, "About two hours."

Hilda grins, grabbing Wayne's hand, her palm is hard and callused and her backhand is soft. He lets her tug him along, until they get to the pack where she looks down at their hands and pulls hers away, a heavy blush rising, "Sorry, I get excited."

Wayne shrugs, "No harm no foul."

"How old are you?" David asks. "You look like a kid, but you sound older."

Wayne thinks, "...Twelve?"

"Do you not know?"

"How long are your years?"

David frowns, "What?"

"I didn't grow up in the city. I never went to school." He says, shamefully.

Hilda, not wanting to be pushy says, "Three hundred sixty-five. Sixty-six every four years."

He sits, thinking, "Yeah, twelve." He decides. "Disregarding those extra days, twelve."

They smile, "You're my age." Hilda says, sitting next to him. "So this is all foreign to you, huh?"

He nods, lugubriously. David sits down next to him and pats him on the back. "Then we can watch people play. Hilda doesn't know how to do any of this either. And I- well- I just don't want to."

Someone sits next to them, "Well we have to do **something**." Wayne looks in the direction of the voice and sees another girl. "Who's this?" she asks Hilda.

"He's a friend."

"Wayne." he says.

"Well I'm Frida, pleasure to meet you!" She hold out a hand glistening with sweat, which he shakes, wiping his hands on the seat of his old jeans afterwards. "Sorry. I've been playing volleyball." she says. "What about the bouncy house?"

David groans, "I'd rather like not getting trampled to death."

"Okay… so what about the dunk tank?"

"I have nothing against the staff." Hilda says.

"Sports?" Frida asks.

"I don't know any." Wayne mutters.

Frida plots herself beside Hilda. "How do you know this kid? He obviously doesn't go here."

Hilda hesitates, "He's- a friend."

"Okay. Who's up for name tag?" Frida asks.

Wayne looks at her weirdly. "What?"

"Have you played regular tag before?" David asks.

"Yes."

"Same thing only if you're about to get tagged, you can call out someone's name and they're it." David says, simply.

Wayne smiles and nods, getting up. "Thanks." he says, "Also there's a bug like right on the top of your head." David bats at it and it crawls beneath his collar. "Got it." Wayne lies, smiling.

Hilda is "it" first, she chases Wayne for a bit before he yells Frida's name, and she tries tagging David, but he calls out Wayne's name. Wayne fakes chasing Frida before turning a complete one-eighty on Hilda who is running behind him. She falls on the ground laughing and calls out David's name. He tries to tag Wayne but Wayne throws himself onto the ground and calls out Hilda's name only to realize he can't see her, and tapped on the shoulder from behind.

"Gotcha." She whispers, he turns around and starts after her. She falls and calls out Frida's name.

"You okay?" he asks, helping her up.

"Fine." She looks over his shoulder, "Watch out-"

"David!" he calls, turning.

David stands still looking at them from his distance, before running at a rapid pace towards them. He fakes going for Wayne to tag Frida, who turns right into a boy with brown hair, bringing the game to a screeching halt. Wayne looks over the situation and helps them both up.

"Trevor?!" Hilda exclaims.

He glares at her, "You again?"

Wayne feels a slight tug of curiosity and decides to ignore it. "Are you alright, man? You took a good bump."

He looks at Wayne and shrugs, "I'll live."

"That's the spirit." Wayne smiles, "Why don't you get something to prevent that from swelling. Try not to get hit again on your way there." They laugh.

"Thanks," he says, "I will. Good to meet you."

"You too." Hilda follows him as he leaves with her eyes. "What's up?"

Hilda sighs, "I just don't like him is all." When he asks why, she shrugs, "He isn't a nice guy, he's really rude actually."

Wayne thinks about it. He didn't seem like a bad guy. "Noted." he says, efforting to make her happy. From there, they go to the food truck and get burgers. "How do I-"

Hilda shakes her head, "Watch me." she takes a bite from her burger. He follows her example, slowly. "Yes, like that. How is it?"

"This is literally the best thing I've ever eaten." Wayne says, taking another bite. "It definitely beats dry beef by a long shot."

Frida looks as though holding back laughter, "You mean jerky?"

Wayne shrugs, "If that's what you guys call it." he says polishing off the burger. Noticing Frida looking at him weirdly, "Sorry, I didn't grow up around here, I'm pretty new to town."

Frida pats him on the back, "We have so much to show you."

"Frida, you up for another game?!" someone calls.

"I'll be right there!" she yells back. Then she looks at her group of friends, "We'll catch up later, duty calls." she says, smiling. The group goes towards the bouncy slide, which there is no line for at the moment.

David looks at them, "This makes you jump higher and the slope lets you slide down. I'll go first to show you how it works." He demonstrates, laughing when he's at the top, but it seems that when he starts sliding he realises how high up he is and screams the rest of the way down. It takes all of Wayne's self control to refrain from laughing. The lady in charge lets them both up at once.

"I'll beat you to the bottom." Hilda exclaims.

Wayne grins, "You're on." They both jump high and bounce down the slide, cheering gleefully. Wayne reaches the bottom right after Hilda, but, facing more momentum, he slides right past her and she ends up sliding right into him, ending up on top of him. He groans after a couple of seconds, "I deserved that."

Hilda realizes where she is and gets up, a bright red blush across her face. "Well, I won."

"You're right." He laughs making his way to his feet, "You won and then you killed me" They share a laugh, getting off the death trap. "David, you tried to kill me!" Wayne jokingly cries, "I thought we were friends!"

David laughs, "You fell for my trap!" he dramatically exclaims.

They laugh it off before moving to the spot where they sat before in the shade until the bell for dismissal rings. Wayne gets up to leave when Hilda grabs his hand. "You don't have to go, my mum could drive you where you're going."

Wayne considers a ride near his home and shakes his head. "No, I have to meet someone." he says. "Tell you what, we'll hang out tomorrow. Meet me here at mid-day."

"Noon?" Hilda asks, smiling.

"If that's what you call it, yes." He says, grabbing his heavy bag. "See you then." he says, pulling his bag on.

"Bye." Hilda says, waving. He waves back without hesitation. Hilda waits patiently for her mum after that, who shows up slightly late.

"Sorry honey, I had to wait in traffic. How was your day?"

Hilda smiles, entering the passenger seat of Johanna's car. "It was good. I made a new friend."

"That's nice." Johanna says, driving out of the parking lot. "What's his name?"

"Wayne. Wayne Sharpe."


	2. Chapter 2

Hilda wakes up at around eleven thirty, being that there is no school, she thought she could sleep in, then she looks a her clock. "Oh no." She says, bolting out of bed to brush her teeth, then she practically tears off her pajamas and throws on a pair of jeans her and lucky red sweater, on her way to the kitchen, she ties her scarf.

"Hey, honey, you look frazzled, what's wrong?" Johanna asks.

"I promised a friend I'd meet him at noon, and I slept in too late!" She exclaims, grabbing a package of Toaster Tarts before putting it in her mouth to throw on her boots and lace them up.

"Seems like an emergency." Johanna mutters, "I'll drive you."

"Really mum?" She asks taking the package out of her mouth.

"Of course, sweetheart I don't want you to be late." she wants to add "to your date" to the end but thinks better of it. "I need to get the hang of the new car anyway. " Hilda hugs her mom and expresses her gratitude. "You're welcome. Now go outside, we have only ten minutes until noon." Hilda does as told and her mother gets her purse and throws on her slippers.

It takes three minutes to get on the road.

Wayne sits in the field as the clock strikes noon. No one. 12:01, still no signs. 12:02, not a soul. It's boiling outside and Wayne can feel his skin tanning as he waits. "Maybe they're just late." he tells himself, watching the street carefully.

"Who?" a voice next to him asks. He snaps his head in their direction to find Trevor. "Sorry I scared you." he says, "Who are you waiting for?"

Wayne sighs, "Hilda."

Trevor grunts when Wayne says her name, he half expects Trevor to say something rude about her but instead he says, "Look, it's obvious that me and her don't mesh well." He starts, "But she isn't one to not follow through. She's probably just late if anything." He states. "That's probably why she's so easy for some people to make friends with. She's reliable." He grumbles. He sounds rather bitter to Wayne, but Wayne keeps that to himself. "As a matter of fact, that's her car, she's only six minutes late."

Hilda sees him and gets out, "Hilda, wait!" her mother exclaims.

"Yes, Mum?" she asks, politely, hiding the annoyed twinge in her gut.

Johanna gives her ten bits. "Here's this, to get you guys ice cream or something." she says.

Hilda had already saved up thirty bits from helping David with his lemonade stand, but doesn't say that out loud. Instead she says, "Thanks Mum, you're the best." Johanna hugs her daughter.

"No problem, sweetheart." She says, kisses Hilda on the head and rolls down her window. "You two have fun!" she calls.

Hilda blushes and looks down until her mother drives away, which doesn't take long. Then she sees Trevor. It doesn't necessarily agitate her, in fact, she's glad Wayne is finally making friends. The problem is that this was supposed to be their day. As friends of course. So her heart sinks slightly when she sees him. Trevor watches her walk up to them. "Hilda." he says, standing up and brushing himself off.

"Trevor." she states, watching Wayne get up.

Wayne holds out his hand, "Good seeing you, Trevor."

Trevor takes the offer and shakes his hand. "You too. I'll see you around, I guess."

"Alright." Trevor leaves and Wayne comes face-to-face with Hilda. "Did you overdress?" he asks, sarcastically.

Hilda smiles, "A little, but I was hoping that we'd do something indoors anyway."

"Like what?"

Hilda giggles, "You know, get ice cream or watch a movie at the Cinema." When he gives he a far off look she sighs, "You don't go out much, huh? Tell me what words you knew."

"Watch and movie." he says. He catches a frustrated look on Hilda's face. "I know, I suck." He just gets so frustrated all at once with himself. He feels like a moron here. He wishes he were back home.

Hilda sees tears in his eyes and immediately goes to comfort him, "Now, now, I never said that. You grew up isolated, right?" Wayne nods, fighting against his emotions, against his memories. "Right then, we just need to get you educated on how people live around here, that's all."

Wayne takes three deep breaths. "Where are the others?"

Hilda shifts on her feet and she explains the situation, "David is out camping with his father and Frida got sick last night. Evidently she's allergic to seaweed.

"So it's just us. Good." he says, then quickly adds, "I mean, I feel really bad for Frida of course. How is she?"

"Better this morning. She was in the hospital all night, but now she's at home, resting." Hilda says, "It'll be a couple of days before she's able to play again."

Wayne groans, "That sucks." he says, "I hope she feels better soon. Tell her that I hope she feels better." Hilda nods. "Okay so it's up to you, what are we gonna do?"

Hilda feels sweat running down her face. "I could honestly go for some ice cream." she says.

Together, they walk to a small ice cream parlor named "Cherry On Top Ice Cream Shop" with an old-school vibe to it. On the speakers an old song plays. Hilda hums along to it, and Wayne listens. Her humming is sweet and soft like a bird's whistle, only it probably doesn't get annoying quite as quickly. When she notices him listening, she stops.

"I love your voice." he says, unknowingly it seems.

"Thanks, that means a lot." she says, flattered.

He looks at her, a blush creeping across his face. "I said that out loud?" Hilda giggles, nodding. He groans when he hears her giggles, his blush spreads across his face. "Who sings this anyway?"

"Sean Sero." Hilda says, smiling. "He is an acoustic god, single-handedly made the genre popular in Trollberg."

Wayne feels a jolt in his chest, "What happened to him?"

"On his first world tour, he was brutally shot and killed in Sugar Park. They never found the killer." They're next in line. "Two chocolates, please." Hilda says, placing ten bits on the counter.

The lady behind the counter yawns, "Waffle cones?"

Hilda smiles, "Yes, please." In a short amount of time, they are sitting down with their cones at a small table. "Now look, soft-serve is the easiest way to eat this. The most common way people eat their ice cream is to lick it." She explains before she demonstrates, "Don't use your teeth to bite into it. The ice cream is too cold." he does as she showed him. "What do you think?"

Wayne thinks for a second, "Indescribable." He decides and starts to quickly eat the ice cream.

"Not that fast, you'll get-" he freezes. "Okay, it's okay look at me, you're fine." She takes his hand and he starts squeezing hers hard.

"I don't think I like this too much anymore." He strains.

"Hey look at me, Wayne, you're fine. Take a deep breath, in through the nose, out through the mouth, okay?" Wayne nods and together they take three deep breaths. "That was a brain freeze. You ate that ice cream way too fast, slow down." He slows down and finishes his ice cream, then he goes to get washed up, after twenty minutes, he's out of the bathroom with a clean face. Hilda is surprised that he actually figured it out. They leave. "How was that?" Hilda asks.

Wayne grunts, "Mesmerizing. Minus the whole brain freeze thing."

Hilda pats him on the back, "Lighten up a little. It was your first time after all, the same thing happened to me."

Wayne nods, "So what now?"

Hilda walks ahead of him, "We're going to my house. Where I'm getting a more fitting set of clothes. I want you to wait outside." Wayne nods. After a forty minute walk, they're outside her house. "Okay so I'll be right out, wait here."

"Got you covered." he says, leaning against the building.

Hilda sneaks inside, seeing Alfur and Johanna working on paperwork, she goes into her room and closes the door quietly. Taking quiet, shallow breaths, she grabs a short-sleeved shirt and her cut-off jeans before tying her lucky sweater around her waist. Then she sneaks out.

When she opens the door she hears a voice ask, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be out on your date?"

Hilda jumps, then sees Wayne looking at her. She holds up her index finger and Wayne nods. She closes the door, "Okay first off, it's not a date. Secondly, why are you following me? You should be helping Mum!" she whisper-yells.

Alfur looks offended, "I went to use the bathroom and I saw you, so I had to follow." Hilda groans, walking Alfur back up the stairs. "Anyway, you have fun. Enjoy your date!"

"It's not a date, Alfur!" Whisper-shouts.

"Sure it isn't." Alfur says, smirking. He enters the home and Hilda leaves, an annoyed look on her face. She takes a deep breath to compose herself.

Wayne glances up, "I didn't know elves lived so close to the city. Does he get home sick?"

"Wait you saw Alfur?!" she exclaims. "How?"

Wayne sits on the curb, "I grew up around them. Since they knew how huge I would eventually become, they gave me a contract to see them."

"And the rest of your family?"

Wayne grimaces. "Didn't need them." he says, remembering. "They were never rude to us. But it's weird that they are here. They didn't like people much."

Hilda smiles, "Yeah. I used to live right in the middle of an elf village. They didn't take to kindly to us. And just when we'd made peace, a giant stepped on our house. But it was for the best, I think." she sighs, "Why'd you move?"

Wayne gets a far off look in his eyes. "We were attacked, so we ran."

"By what?" Wayne doesn't meet her eyes. She can see him fighting himself and sighs, "Come on, let's go to Crown Cinema. You'll love it there. Besides, on Saturdays popcorn is free." Hilda brings him to the large theatre, where a short line stands between them and the ticket vendor. Wayne takes a look at Hilda, who shifts uncomfortably. "What?"

Wayne looks away quickly, a heavy blush covering his face. "I just- I like what you're wearing. It screams you, you know?" he says.

Hilda smiles, "Thanks." she says, looking at the ground for a second. Shortly, they're at the front of the line, the old lady handing out the tickets asks which movie they're going to see. "Two for Touch of the Serpent, please."

The old lady punches it in, "That'll be twenty bits and thirty-five chips." she says. Hilda gives her thirty bits and takes her change. "Enjoy your date, kids." she says, smiling warmly at them. They both grimace as she hands them their tickets.

Then they walk to the concession stand, where a teenager with acne trouble sits. "Can I take your order?" he says, uninterested.

Hilda smiles, "Yes, could we have a large popcorn?" The teenager gets them a big bucket that says "Free on Saturday!" in big red letters. "With extra butter please?"

He rolls his eyes, but complies, pouring the liquid butter all over the popcorn, "Anything else?"

Hilda thinks for a moment, "Yes actually, could we get two extra large blue Razzelberrys?"

The teenager does so slothfully, "That'll be eight bits." he says. Hilda puts the money on the counter. He finishes and takes the money, Hilda takes the popcorn and Wayne takes the drinks.

"What's Razzleberry?" He asks, walking beside her.

"It's a raspberry flavored fruit drink. It's very popular in Trollberg." she says, hooking a right. She gives the tickets to the guy in front of door. He tears them in half and lets them in. The room they enter is huge with a white screen on the wall in front. "Look when the movie starts, we have to be quiet."

Wayne raises an eyebrow, "Why?"

Hilda shrugs, "I thought it sounded dumb too, but that's what Frida said. Something about 'courtesy,' probably." Hilda says. "This movie is a action adventure movie I believe. All I know about it is that frida loved it." she says, sitting down. Hilda takes a few pieces of popcorn and pops them into her mouth.

"So do you come here often?"

Hilda takes a sip of her drink and shakes her head. "Nope. This is my second time." she says, it's a good spot to see friends, though." The movie comes on and Wayne drinks some of his juice and tries some popcorn. The the flavor is odd in a way that shouldn't work but really does. It's really greasy, though. He wipes his hand on his cargo shorts and drinks from his Razzleberry. Then he sits back, watching the movie. It's apparently about a guy who has to go through some hidden forest to find a jewel which is the title's namesake. Sometime through the movie, he goes to put his arm on his arm rest and places he feels a familiar soft form there, her hand. He goes to move his back, before realising she hasn't moved her's from his. He looks at her, and she looks back. "It's fine." she whispers, so he keeps his arm and hand there and for the rest of the movie, they sit like that. His hand on her's, until the lights come back on, and Hilda moves her hand. Wayne grabs their empty cups to rinse them out and Hilda grabs the half-eaten tub of popcorn, throwing it away.

Wayne goes into the bathroom and Hilda waits. She thinks hard about them. What are they? It's weird because he seems like just another guy, yet everyone thinks they're dating for some reason. She's only known Wayne for a day, yet he feels like an older friend what is that? He's also so odd, but something about that mixed with his amazingly fast learning makes him seem different. He's different. More so than any other kid she's met.

He comes out with the cups, "Figured it out pretty quick this time." he says, walking towards her, "Now where should I put these?"

Hilda smiles at him, "Throw them into that blue bin."

He works his way to the bin and shoves the two cups into it, waiting for her. "What'd you think of the movie?" he asks, when they arrive at her home.

Hilda sighs, "It's the same as all the other ones. I'm kinda disappointed, to be honest. But the experience was nice."

"I stand with you there. Look, I have to run a couple errands and Canda is expecting me home soon. She gets lonely if I'm not back before dark."

Hilda raises an eyebrow, "Who's Canda?" she asks.

Wayne shrugs, "She's my... guardian."

"Relative?"

Wayne shakes his head. "Not exactly. More like a family friend." he says, in a way begging her not to probe further.

Hilda smiles, "Okay." she hugs him, "It's been great getting to know you."

Wayne gives her a toothy grin which Hilda finds cute, "You too."

"How will I find you?" she asks.

Wayne looks back, "I'm always around!" he shouts, waving.

She waves back.


End file.
